Caring for Heroes
by Dragon KeyboardFreak
Summary: Link returns to Skyloft just as the sun goes down. But as he makes to his way to the infirmary of the academy, he collapses. A tale of the bond between brothers. One-shot! Set in Skyward Sword


**THIS HAS BEEN EDITED FOR GRAMMAR AND MISSPELLS. **

**I'm on a LoZ : SS roll. This had been rolling around in my head since Eldin Volcano. I have to admit, that is my favorite. I love the Mogmas. The Kikwis are awesome too. **

**I also adore Pipit, can't you tell?**

**So have fun reading!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything except the plot.**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

The sun was setting as Link landed in front of the Goddess Statue, the former home of his sword and Fi. The blue eyed teen hissed as he shifted in a somewhat bad way. He had just returned from the Earth Temple and he was badly wounded. He had no potions or fairies as he had used them all while in the damn place. And if that wasn't bad enough, all of the heart plants had been used up while fighting Scaldera, the creature that Ghirahim had created to kill him, or at the very least, slow him down, so as to not reach Zelda. And then that woman that had been with Zelda. Her words still stung and he still couldn't help wonder if he was a failure like she hinted at. Then inwardly he scoffed at himself.

_Well, we can't all be magic and be able to jump twenty feet in the air!_ Link sneered in his mind. He winced at his thoughts. Yeah, he was hurting. He only acted and thought like that if he was truly in pain. As he made his way down the steps, he could feel the blood dripping or pouring from his wounds. Hopefully, he could make it to the infirmary and get some potions and other medical care before anyone found him. Painfully, he opened the door to the academy and limped in slowly, carefully closing the door behind him so as to not alert or awaken anyone. Making his way down the stairs slowly, his vision started to blur and become spotty. The pain was crashing down on him even more now and he couldn't tell where he was going. Blackness bordered his vision before slowly closing in.

With a pained moan, Link came to a stop, fell to his knees, and then fell completely, unconscious to the world.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

Pipit grinned as he walked out of his dorm room, stretching as he did so. He had been annoyed with Instructor Horwell after telling him to let someone else do the night patrol, but now he was glad. It had been a long while since he had last gotten some sleep. As he started for the stairs to head down to the first floor (because of the number of boys that ended up at the academy, the first and second floors of dorms had been dedicated to the boys while the third floor housed the girls dorms), a shout of horror came from below. Pipit recognized it as Instructor Owlan's. Hurrying down the stairs, he opened his mouth to demand what was wrong, when the words choked in his throat as he took in the scene in horror and fear. Lying in a small pool of blood was Link, unmoving, eyes closed, seemingly dead as Pipit saw no sign of him breathing.

The brunette shook off his fear that his surrogate brother was dead and rushed forward, ignoring Owlan's calling for Headmaster Gaepora. Pipit carefully rolled Link onto his back before lifting the boy into his arms, ignoring his cry of pain in favor of relief to hear and see that the blond was still alive. He moved into the infirmary—idly noting that by the position Link had been lying in, he had been trying to get some potions—and laid the unconscious boy onto a bed.

Forcing himself away from the younger teen, Pipit mechanically moved around the large room, searching for medical supplies and potions. Returning to Link's side, he eyed the tunic and chainmail and grimaced when he realized what he would have to do. This was going be painful, physically for Link and emotionally for Pipit. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he looked at the rapidly approaching Instructor Horwell, who was practically the only one who knew what do to. Their usual doctor was out on the Lumpy Pumpkin, spending time with his son, Pumm, and granddaughter, Kina.

Horwell nodded to Pipit, letting the teen know he was there to help. The yellow clad boy gave a small nod in return before grasping a knife and carefully slicing through the tunic. He knew that with the amount of wounds Link had, pulling the clothing off would be the worst thing to do. Once the tunic was off, Horwell carefully and gently lifted Link into a sitting position and Pipit began to carefully and slowly peel off the chainmail. They both knew that while it would be better to break through it, it would take far too long. Both refrained from showing any reaction as Link cried out or screamed in pain. Horwell saw Link awaken once, but clearly was too out of it to recognize anything before passing out again, still clearly in agony. Finally, the chainmail was off and they lowered Link down, ignoring his whimper and the blood staining the white sheets of the bed.

Pipit grabbed the salve and bandages and handed half of them to Horwell before handing him a small basin filled with water and a clean rag. Together, the two worked to clean the wounds and wrap them. Once Link's upper half was cared for, Pipit sliced through Link's pants, leaving the boy's boxers and allowing the two to continue their search for wounds. Finally, his wounds were cleaned and bandaged. Horwell grabbed a red potion and carefully tipped some into Link's mouth. When they saw that he wasn't swallowing it, Pipit gently raised his head and nodded for Horwell do try again. This time, he massaged Link's throat, encouraging him to drink it. Thankfully it worked.

The two sat back in emotional exhaustion. Gaepora and Owlan came forward as the Headmaster asked, "How is he?"

Horwell looked up and said, "Not good. Where he had been down on the surface, he was around fire and possibly lava. I have never seen lava, so I don't know for sure."

"He was."

The three men looked at Pipit, who had not looked away from Link. Swallowing hard, he looked at his teachers and said, "Before he left, Link told me had to go to a place called Eldin Volcano."

Gaepora's eyes widened and he said, "Eldin Volcano is the home of the Mogma people. They were one of the five races to aid the Goddess in defeating the evil on The Surface."

Pipit smiled tightly at the Headmaster's awe before looking at Link. Seeing how Link seemed to be flushed, he reached over and placed his hand on the teen's forehead. His eyes widened and he swore quietly. Ignoring the men, he emptied the pink water in his basin, washed it out, and grabbed a new rag before filling the basin with cold water. Dipping the rag in and getting it soaked, he wrung out the excess water and said to the men as he placed it on Link's forehead, "He has a fever."

Horwell grew grim as he said, "He will have a tough battle ahead of him. We don't know how long he had been lying on the ground before Owlan found him. Pipit, until Link's fever has broken and he has recovered, I'm excusing you from class. As for your night patrol, I'm switching you to watcher duty for Link. You'll still be paid if you wish."

Pipit nodded, his expression serious and determination set. Horwell patted his shoulder and left with his fellow instructor and the Headmaster. Sighing, Pipit looked at his surrogate brother and said, "You'll be fine, Link. I know you won't let Zelda down."

0-0-0-0-0-0

Two days and two nights passed before Link's fever finally broke, but he still didn't awaken. Another five days and six nights passed and Pipit was thankful for Karane. The girl had found out what was going on the second morning of Link's arrival and asked (or rather demanded) to be allowed to help out Pipit and Link. He hadn't known that Karane was fond of Link, almost seeing him as a younger brother, but wasn't quite at that point considering she didn't know him as well as Pipit did. When Karane came in for her shift, Pipit didn't bother getting up; he just crossed his arms on Link's bed and laid his head down on them, instantly falling asleep. Karane shook her head at him, smiling fondly. He was going to have a sore back and neck when he woke up.

As Pipit slumbered on, his dreams became a temple floating in the sky. Below him was Skyloft. Frowning, he wondered what had happened to the Goddess Statue and why it was somewhat disconnected with Skyloft. A soft blue light floated down and a voice spoke to him from it.

"_I thank you, Pipit son of Skylark. If not for you, my Chosen Hero may have been greatly weakened and would have failed in his quest. For this, I give you these gifts._"

Two mirrors flashed into view and slowly floated down to him. Cautiously, he grasped them and looked them over. They were round and had the usual bird-like symbol that was found around Skyloft.

"_This, my dear Pipit, will allow you to speak to Link whenever you, or he, need to. This is my gift, and my thank you to you, for caring for my Chosen Hero. May the Goddesses of Creation be with you, Pipit son of Skylark._"

The yellow clad teen snapped awake and bolted upwards, hissing at the soreness that pulled at his back and neck as he did. Horwell looked at him in amusement and Pipit was startled to see that he had slept through not only Karane's shift, but also Owlan's; the shifts were each two and a half hours long. Pipit blinked rapidly before looking down at his side. Next to him were the very same mirrors that the Goddess had given him in his dream.

Horwell frowned as he looked at him before he asked, "Where did you get those? I don't recall ever seeing them. They are beautiful."

Although shocked, Pipit managed to say, "The Goddess gave them to me."

Horwell's head snapped up before he said, "Tell me everything."

Pipit immediately relayed him everything and when he finished, Horwell said, "This is most unusual. However, I am glad she did so. I'll have to ask the Headmaster if something like this has ever occurred before. This means that Link will fully recover. Ah, that's what I was forgetting. While you were asleep, Link awakened briefly during Instructor Owlan's shift."

The teen's eyes widened and he asked, "Was he alright? Did he say anything?"

Mia's caretaker smiled at the teen and said, "He's fine. Exhausted, but that is to be expected. As for saying anything, he asked for you, but before Owlan could wake you up, he fell back to sleep."

Pipit sighed in relief before frowning slightly. While it was true they saw each other as brothers, why did Link ask for him rather than Zelda? It would make more sense as two of them were closer, being practically glued to each other's side when Zelda wasn't helping her father or when Groose wasn't bullying Link. Pipit shook it away; it didn't matter anyways. Link was recovering and healing well and that's all that mattered.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

After another three days had passed and once Link had woken up and stayed awake. The blonde had listened to not only Pipit, but Horwell and Gaepora give him the lecture of a lifetime for scaring them all to death. Link had apologized profusely before thanking them for taking care of him. At the moment, it was only he and Pipit, speaking about Pipit's dream and the mirrors.

"You will tell me what's going on while down there or I will follow you. If not, I send Karane after you," Pipit warned.

Link paled. Karane had also ripped him a new one and Link was quite willing to admit that she scared him; not as much as Zelda perhaps, but that was to be expected.. He did not want Karane hunting him down if he didn't check in with Pipit. The teen nodded and Pipit smirked.

"Pipit."

The boy hummed as he looked at the blonde and Link smiled as he said, "Thanks."

Pipit smiled back and said, "No problem."

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Yes, I know it was similar to Ebil Chameleon's Overworked. That story inspired this one.**

**Other than that… What did you think? Was it good? Did I capture Pipit's personality okay?**

**As for Horwell, since we don't really know his personality, I made my own.**

**I'm sure you also noticed that I added another floor to the academy. I did that because I highly doubt that just Zelda and Karane are the only girls there. The same goes for the boys. That's why in my mind, the academy is a lot bigger so it includes not only a kitchen, but an infirmary, two more bathrooms, three classrooms, and a library.**

**That means Skyloft is a bit bigger. There are also at least another two instructors for the academy, but I didn't want to create any OCs, so I used only Horwell and Owlan. The unnamed doctor is the only "OC" in this.**

**I also imagine the Lumpy Pumpkin kind of like a hotel or something like that instead of what it looks like in the game. Yeah, it's still a pumpkin looking building, but it's a hotel. **

**Why did I include a dream about the Goddess speaking to Pipit? Because I wanted to. I also wanted to show the bond between Link and Pipit, hence, the mirrors. **

**The mirrors were inspired by the ones Sirius Black gave to Harry in the fifth book.**

**Feel free to ask any questions and don't forget to review. **


End file.
